Harlequin female

[Bill Dix]

D90; 80-400 VR @ 370mm. ISO 400. f/7.1 @ 1/2500s. Matrix metering @ -2.0EV. HH. Cropped ~15%.

Barnegat Lighthouse a week ago. Question: does the large oof rock in the foreground relegate an otherwise nice duck to the trash bin, or does one's eye get past that? (And then there are the missing feet.) C&C appreciated.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Bill, I wouldn't put this in the trash...The subject is evenly lit with good detail with the water beads adding to the image. The foreground rock is dominant but due to it being OOF does not totally dominate the image. I would take out a small slice of it just past the little peak. This will reduce it a little and still leave plenty of room in the front. It would of added to the image showing the feet but in this case not an image breaker.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Bill - agree with Dave - whilst it would be better without the rock - I dont think it is a image killer.
Like the water droplets and eye contact.

[Harold Davis]

that's some beautiful light, bill!! love it and the detail in the bird. agree with dave and lance's comments ref the rock.

[Bill Dix]

Thank you Dave, Lance and Harold. I've built on Dave's idea of a crop to reduce the impact of the rock, by not only cropping a bit from the left but also rotating some of the rock downward to add some water. Don't know if this is an improvement, but I think I like it better.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Bill, I would say a definate improvement. The rock is not nearly as dominant...

[Harold Davis]

big time improvement!

[Gail Spitler]

Hi Bill The bird is excellent, love the water droplets. If this were mine, I would trash it and not spend time on post-processing. My heart would ache though because the bird is so nice. I might keep it as a documentation image. Plus I think I saw some other Harlequin images of yours over at avian forum, so all is not lost.
Cheers
Gail

[Bill Dix]

Hi Bill The bird is excellent, love the water droplets. If this were mine, I would trash it and not spend time on post-processing. My heart would ache though because the bird is so nice. I might keep it as a documentation image. Plus I think I saw some other Harlequin images of yours over at avian forum, so all is not lost.
Cheers
Gail

Thanks Gail. I think I'll keep it as documentation -- I have other harlequins (I may post another soon) but this is the best of the female images. Still, the rock does bother me to the point that it's not a prized image. I'll need to go back to Barnegat before the harlequins head north.

[Myer Bornstein]

The rock needs to decrease in size otherwise the duck is great